Two experienced, versatile forwards, Edgaras Ulanovas and Victor Claver, face each other on Friday when of Zalgiris hosts Valencia to break their tie near the top of the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague standings.
Head-to-head: Ulanovas, Zalgiris vs. Claver, Valencia
Stats
3 Mins read
Zalgiris Kaunas welcomes Valencia Basket in Round 5, giving fans a chance to see an always-interesting head-to-head matchup featuring savvy veteran forwards Edgaras Ulanovas, for the hosts, and Victor Claver, for the visitors.
Between them, Ulanovas and Claver have a wealth of experience. In his 10th Euroleague season, Ulanovas has played 228 of his 276 games as a starter and reached the 2018 Final Four with Zalgiris. Ulanovas owns career averages of 7.4 points, 3.4 rebounds and 3.9 PIR.
Now in his ninth EuroLeague season, Claver is coming up on his 198th game, 127 so far as a starter. He has been to two Final Fours: with Lokomotiv Kuban Krasnodar in 2016 and with FC Barcelona in 2021. He also lifted the BKT EuroCup trophy with Valencia in 2010. Claver's career averages are 6.1 points, 3.7 rebounds and 8.0 PIR.
It is only logical that Claver and Ulanovas have crossed paths several times. Friday's game will mark their ninth head-to-head confrontation in the EuroLeague.
Claver should have good memories of his first EuroLeague game against Ulanovas. He buried the go-ahead free throws to lead Lokomotiv to a 74-76 road victory in Kaunas. Claver had 12 points and a PIR of 18 that night. Ulanovas had 3 points, 5 rebounds, 3 steals and a PIR of 12.
Later in the 2015-16 campaign, Lokomotiv overwhelmed Zalgiris 80-50 behind Claver's double-double of 10 points and 10 rebounds. Ulanovas's first win against Claver came on February 2, 2017: Zalgiris edged Barca 89-85 and Ulanovas played a leading role with 17 points, 4 rebounds, 4 assists and a PIR of 25.
Claver and Ulanovas have split wins in their previous matchups, getting four victories each, all of them in regular season action.
Overall, Ulanovas has outperformed Claver in their head-to-head games. Ulanovas averages 6.5 points compared to Claver's 5.5. Both of have grabbed 3.5 rebounds per game. And Ulanovas also leads in assists, getting 2.6 against Claver's 1.0, and in steals, 1.0 against 0.4. As such, Ulanovas had an average PIR of 9.3 in their games to Claver's 6.8.
Remarkably enough, neither player has missed a free throw attempt in any of their eight games. Ulanovas has gone 13-for-13 at the foul line in games against Claver, who has buried 10 out of 10 there. Unsurprisingly, both of them are good free throw shooters: Ulanovas makes 82.2% for his career, a little bit better than Claver's 81.1%.
Other than that, Ulanovas has shot the ball better inside the arc, hitting 12 of 29 two-pointers (41.4%), while Claver was limited to 5 of 16 (31.3%). The Valencia forward has done better from beyond the arc, however, making 8 of 20 three-pointers (40%) to Ulanovas's 5 of 16 (31.3%) in their previous games.
Both players are good defenders and know how to score in the low post. Expect nothing but an exciting matchup between Ulanovas and Claver!